This Sunday sees the fourth and final session (for me) of Photographing the City – Matt and Pete’s sociable, how-to photography course set on the streets of Birmingham and featuring a pleasant mix of arty/techy teaching, walking, socialising, photographing stuff (more egs below) and peer review.

The rain is due to clear up with both BBC and Wunderground (16 day forecast!) showing sun/clouds for this weekend. So if you’re twiddling your thumbs, why not book a slot? No need for a fancy camera. Even better, it’s a Photo School in a pub! (At the Victoria pub, which does a mean happy hour cocktail).

The rotating four-week sessions work as standalone lessons or as a whole course, depending on what you want to get out of it, and have gone from street photography to epic landscapes to abstract details. This week, it’s practical documentary photography.

I may be a bit biased but I have found each one to be a brilliant learning experience. And I’ve been taking photos for quite a few years, albeit stuck on P/programme mode ( the equivalent of auto).

I’ve blogged them all so far on behalf of Matt & Pete’s Photo School. But I was particularly happy with my Week 3 abstract detail photowalk. I played a lot with in-camera processing (see the lamppost trio up top) as colour theory was part of the teaching bit at the start, and then moved onto looking for details in the environment that would make interesting photographs in their own right.

Three favourites I took on the day:

1. Blue and orange – opposites on the colour wheel. Impact. Interesting shapes randomised by changing canal reflections.

2. Vertical and horizontal multicoloured stripes are splashes of colour in the grey-brown environment. Meets street photography. Meets Fibonacci spiral composition.

3. A colourful detail of Gas St Basin. With orange that pops.

There are also collaborations to be made between the images. I particularly like these three together, for example.

The critique at the end of the session is interesting and a chance to see what others in the group took on the same walk – different angles, missed details, new images. Here are three I really liked from the others in the Photo School Flickr group:

1. A thin blue line at New St signal box.

2. A beautiful detail.

3. What is the story? A win for freedom as no go zone bollards are caged and woman walks free. Or is it the woman who is in the cage caught by ominous no entry signs? Much to read into this one. Makes me ask: ‘why?’ Interesting.

What will this Sunday bring? To be blogg-ed.

Sometimes holiday snaps produce something a little bit more artistic. I particularly like this moody photograph (of Pete) taken on the top of the rainy Parking 58 car park in Brussels. Why were we on a car park roof in the rain? Find out here. More Brussels trip posts are on Tourist Vs Traveller.

So today was week two (of four) of Matt & Pete’s Photo School. Last month, we played with finding the decisive moment in street photography, this time it was landscapes and creating huge panoramic vistas using the iconic buildings of Birmingham.

One line I liked in Matt’s teaching bit was the idea of finding God in the landscape. I’m not religious but this encapsulated the concept of structuring a photograph to make people (last month’s topic of interest) seem small in the magnificence of the wide, sweeping landscape. To create a sense of the sublime, of epic beauty in the architecture and skyscapes.

I struggled. With the tripod – although I got to grips with its endless fiddly functions. And with finding a three-dimensional composition of good foreground, middle and background – I often only got two out of the three. But I think I did achieve a sense of the smallness of humans versus the built environment in at least some of the shots.

I also learnt that when restricted to a set (wide) angle, I’m no Ansel Adams. My photos were mediocre out of the camera but some have been made in the ‘dark room’.

My job as an editor may be a factor here. I don’t necessarily take good shots at the time but instead see the crop and how to make the photo afterwards, back in the studio in Lightroom. (Although now that I think about it, Ansel Adams was also all about The Print, and his work in the darkroom.)

Anyway, I enjoyed the day. Particularly the social angle of taking photos with others – one of the main pluses of Photo School. There are some shots of Photo School in action on my Flickr set for anyone interested in joining the next course.

As well as the top favourite pic, which combines looming archictecture with the decisive moment of street photography, here are the rest of my favourites from the day.

Holloway Circus subway – all angles and lead-in curves

Pagoda and cherry blossom – could be Japan?

Digbeth – nice colour palette and strong lines

Beetham Tower – Rad!

And this people-y one of tripod testing…

This is a monthly course being run in central Birmingham. If you want to know more or to sign up for the next one, here are the deets of Matt & Pete’s Photo School.

Today was the inaugural five-hour lesson of Matt & Pete’s Photo School in which 10 strangers met upstairs in Birmingham’s Victoria pub to learn more about photography and how to improve our own efforts.

The framework of the day – after tea and coffee – involved an hour of learning a bit about the technical side of how a camera works, a bit about Henri Cartier-Bresson and a bit about the theory and style of street photography.

Then Matt and Pete set out three rules for our photowalk around Birmingham:

• use a fixed focal length on the lens (no zooming!)
• use the rule of thirds in some of the compositions
• frame your chosen scene, wait for someone to walk into it and then take the shot

On the walk, I found the rule of thirds pretty easy to apply. But having a fixed 50mm lens and trying to find a good frame was disconcerting.

The fixed lens also meant getting closer to strangers and taking the risk of being invasive, but mostly they seemed to be buried deep in their own worlds. The discomfort was more mine. This was not helped by a sticky shutter button – a known problem on some Canon DSLRs – which kept delaying the shot, leaving me with a lot of ‘nearly but not quite’ pictures.

I chose the one above as an example of that. I was playing with shutter priority and using a slow speed to create motion blur. Luckily, one of the subjects turned to face the camera as I pressed the shutter button, which created a nice focal point. Unfortunately the act of pressing the button shifted the camera slightly and all the static lines of the steps and Town Hall columns end up blurred rather than crisp.

I presented it as an interesting failure but was surprised that the photo got a fairly positive critique. Apart from the unintended camera shake, the overall effect is quite painterly, the feel was accidentally ‘very Cartier-Bresson’ and it led to some discussion about how boring ‘perfect’ photos can be in the digital world and how non-standard ones can jump out at you. I did take better photos but the critique at the end of the day opened up my thoughts about the emotional effects of a photo that isn’t technically perfect.

I don’t want to go into all the issues that I have with my own photographs but one of the main things I’ve realised is that apart from a couple of rules of composition and my own personal likes, I lack confidence in judging a photograph. I don’t have a strong sense of when a photo is good or not. The end result of this is taking an endless series of photos rather than taking control of the creative decisions and shooting less.

The other thing I learnt about myself today is that I need to slow down. I tend to get frustrated at missing the shot but perhaps I need to see this type of photography more like going fishing: set up the equipment, throw the line out, sit back and see if you get a catch. If you don’t, then just chill and start again. Enjoy it!

Or something.

It will be interesting to see what the others produced in the Photo School Flickr group.

The next session is in a month’s time and will involve stepping away from the ‘normal view’ to investigate wide angles, landscapes and a photowalk around some of Brum’s iconic buildings. Looking forward to the fancy learning, the practical stuff, meeting people and getting my head around ‘me’ as a photographer.

More info on how to bag a place is here.

Otherwise here are the other three photos I took today that I think have some merit:

Every year when I renew my Flickr account I pick out my favourite 50 photos (here is last year’s set). Except this year I seem to have overshot the mark with 75 on the short long list. Consume in whichever way you want: by Flickr set, thumbnail screengrab (above) or pretty slideshow (below).

Why Birmingham Flickrmeets rawk and possibly create an opportunity local adventure tourism – check out the full story over on my travel blog. Meanwhile, here is a slideshow of yesterday’s concrete loveliness – or view the full set on Spaghetti Junction Flickrmeet:

These links are relevant to my interest but have been sitting in tabs for the last two weeks. I will read them, I >will<. But after I’ve dumped them here. They make quite an interesting view of what has been taking up my time in the last little while. Links as diary entry?

I’m thinking of buying an Android phone…

• HTC Desire review by TechRadar – five stars, looks good, please tell me if this review is all to cock in the comments though as buying is imminent via Top Desire deals. Or should I iPhone it like the rest of the world?

Festivals

• CoCoMad is this weekend (July 3, 2010) in Cotteridge Park, South Brum. I have heard it is good. Here is the line-up.
• I missed it (on purpose) but I’m glad it’s being televised. Here’s a rant about TV coverage, though: After the flags, the mud-slinging.

The garden

• The garden has been battered into submission to my will. This rose was planted by my Mum and is the prettiest thing in it: Woburn Abbey floribunda. I heartily recommend this little try-hard. Lots of colours and it flowers repeatedly. All for a tenner. Thinking of getting another one.

Content strategy

• I thought I liked this site. Boy, was I wrong – Kristina Halvorson cocks up and learns a lesson in user research.
• Content strategy for the real world – slides by Kristina Halvorson.
• Fusing content strategy with design – CS appears in UX Mag.
• Content isn’t king after all (but neither is content curation)
• You can stick your lorem ipsum right up your CMS – for the title alone, but I also like Jeremy Head’s writing (he’s a travel writer too) and rather amazed to find out he’s become a content strategist. Parallel worlds.
• Skills to transition to content strategy
• Content Mapping: A Different Way to Audit
• Organising content – by I’d Rather Be Writing
• Walk Like a Publisher – Don’t Evolve Like One
• The New Rules For Judging ‘Quality’ In Published Content
• CS Forum 2010 Paris – the video presentations

UX / IA

• UX myths – eg, people don’t scroll (agree), but Flash IS evil!
• Zombie personas and many more links that are relevant to my CS/UX interests.
• Personas as User Assistance and Navigation Aids
• The Future is Already Here: Three Trends in IA

Travel and photography

• Eric Fischer has mapped the difference of where tourists and locals take photos – lots of cities mapped. Fascinating. One to blog on the the travel blog.

Copyright and fair use

• The battle lines are being drawn over fair use: Two POVs on the Barclays v. TheFlyOnTheWall.com case

What do the super-rich want to read about?

• The invitation-only subscription magazine for the super-rich – fuel for my day blogging.

Memes

• Know your meme: Jejemon:  “In the Philippines, Jejemon is an internet slang used to describe someone who typEs LyK tHIs.”

Blogging (and hyperlocals)

• 4 Web analytics basics – includes how to lower bounce rates
• How I Publish 42 Blog Posts Per Week – Tips for Efficiency

(and from a convo with Talk About Local’s Will Perrin in the pub…)

• Gypsy Roma Traveller Month: Travellers Got Talent competition
• Kington Blackboard
• Saddleworth News
• Parwich

…is better parties, social occasions, family life and harmony. Possibly.

Yes, the Creative Commons licensing of your content has the direct side-effect of shareability, clarity and time efficiency of not chasing copyright permissions. But it also has the real-world, real-time impact of more people (hopefully) attending what is a truly lovely family event in Birmingham this weekend. And here’s why – in a 24-hour timeline:

Saturday 12.00: Yesterday, I took photographs at a family day out at this weekend’s Traditional Edwardian Fete at Winterbourne House and Garden, and as is my habit, set them uploading to my Flickr photo account, during the making of dinner. Here’s the set of 60 and also in slideshow format:

Saturday 22.00: After adding a few captions and tags and the like, at midnight I posted the link to the family on Facebook, and then also posted to Twitter.

Sunday 10.00: This morning, I discovered that Nick Booth from my Twitterstream had blogged about my day and posted some of my photos on the Birmingham Conservation Trust charity website.

No need to contact me first; the pics were released under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial licence.

He then let me know via Flickr comments and Twitter that it was up – just in time to get the word out to more potential visitors.

Sunday 12.00: Hopefully, as a result, many more people will get to enjoy this lovely house, garden and fete – as it was intended, full of promenading Edwardians, the bluebell wood still just about in flower, cream teas on the terrace, cheese-rolling skittles and coconut shies on the lawn, and donkey rides down in the glade. And now, by doing something interesting with my content, Nick’s driven me to blog about it too.

Winterbourne Gardens Traditional Edwardian Fete is on til 5pm today in Edgbaston, a stroll from the Barber Institute, King Edwards School and Birmingham University. £6 for adults, concession £4, under fives, free.

Ooh, just realised I can create a slideshow on Flickr. So while waiting for today’s Traditional Edwardian Fete photo set to upload to my favourite photo-sharing platform, here are my top 50 photos (imo). It’s a personal pick since joining Flickr in September 2008. And if you don’t fancy the slideshow, feel free to browse through the 50 Favourites set on site, photo by gloriously random photo.

For those who need a reason to scoot through, there are pics here from:

• The desert where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed
• The murder of crows in my local park
• A haunted furnace in Birmingham, Alabama
• Light-painting with an illuminated gyroscope
• 24-hour Scalextric
• Rice representations of human populations
• Birmingham Flickrmeets
• And neon No Farting sign in a pork ribs shack

And who should open the show but, natch, the lovely Pete Ashton, who was the one who pointed out how easy it is to do a Flickr slideshow. Full circle.

November 5, 2009: The local Bonfire Night shows were few, far and in-between; the Coop fresh out of sparklers. And besides, it was raining. 

In creative frustration, we came up with the idea of photographing indoor fireworks – Pete suggested throwing some bicarbonate of soda onto the gas ring, or salt, or pepper. I suggested a safer option: domestic prettiness in the form of standby lights, digital clockfaces, blinking answer machine light, candles, pilot light, torches etc. In the modern home, it’s amazing what you find when you turn off the lights.

That’s when I discover my old Powerball – the world’s fastest hand-held gyroscope. 

So with a whirring gyroscope in one hand, I switch off the lights and press the shutterbutton on the camera, which is placed on a tripod in front of a mirror. Then it’s 10 seconds of lightpainting, then 8, 6, finally settling on 4 seconds for optimum alien prettiness.

The full set are all on my Flickr page – I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out. The shapes are the main thing so I’ve played with the colour balance in Photoshop. The gyroscope ones sort of remind me of the Aliens set.

Here are Pete’s photos, with some cool multiple exposure shots.

So, all in all, a hardworking but pretty nice Bonfire Night.